As we noted here on TreeHugger, the partnership announcement was timed perfectly by Scotts, who was surely hoping to offset any negative press generated by the poisoned bird seed story by its heartwarming partnership with the National Wildlife Federation. Unfortunately for them, the public didn't agree. In the end, neither did the NWF.

The statement from the National Wildlife Federation reads:

"The National Wildlife Federation has worked together with ScottsMiracle-Gro over the past two years on programs to educate gardeners about global warming, connect children to the outdoors and help restore habitat following the Gulf oil disaster. Both parties recently announced plans for an even broader partnership that was based on our common interests.

Since that time, Scotts announced a pending legal settlement related to events in 2008 that predate our partnership, which has made it clear that the partnership is not viable. Therefore, NWF and Scotts will work together to end the partnership in a friendly and mutually beneficial way."

I was going to post an update once more details came out, but several days later, this is the extent of what the NWF has said about the situation. On their website, the NWF urges the public to share their opinions or questions via email.

The NWF's Facebook page, where many people had earlier expressed chagrin at news of the partnership, was mostly filled with people thanking the organization for ending the partnership. Amid these messages of support were also several comments about how the organization has lost people's trust, that the damage is already done.

I for one am happy to see an end to this partnership, and am interested to see what comes next. I sincerely hope that the NWF will learn something from this experience: some relationships just aren't worth the trouble!